ROS Lboard

Cruel zoos, illegal wildlife trade an embarrassment

June 29, 2013

FMT LETTER: From Sean Whyte, via e-mail

Despite the still relatively new and excellent Wildlife Conservation Act 2010, there remains in office the same old management behind Perhilitan. This may explain why the law is not enforced and zoos which legally should be closed – remain open.

New zoos are popping up all over the place in Malaysia while bad ones remain untouched by law officers.

Which goes to show, there is a new law but in reality nothing has changed and animals continue to suffer while Perhilitan officers sit behind their desks drinking coffee.

Making matters worse for Malaysia is its unenviable reputation as an international hub for the illegal wildlife trade….which is closely linked to organised crime, drug and arms trades.

All this can only happen because of Perhilitan’s relaxed attitude towards law enforcement. The policy of this out-dated and despised department appears to be one of ‘see no evil, hear no evil, carry on drinking coffee and to hell with the animals.’

When will Minister Palanivel sort out Perhilitan and begin to help the animals? The animals can’t help themselves can they?

I leave the minister with this remark by Mahatma Ghandi to think about: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals……. “

The writer is CEO of Nature Alert

Comments

Readers are required to have a valid Facebook account to comment on this story. We welcome your opinions to allow a healthy debate. We want our readers to be responsible while commenting and to consider how their views could be received by others. Please be polite and do not use swear words or crude or sexual language or defamatory words. FMT also holds the right to remove comments that violate the letter or spirit of the general commenting rules.

The views expressed in the contents are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of FMT.